


northern light

by katierosefun



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Broken Bones, Concussions, Fluff, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Protective Obi-Wan Kenobi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26424112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun
Summary: The time Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan got stranded on an ice planet. A rather miserable situation to be in, but one that becomes less miserable with huddling for warmth and pretty lights.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 18
Kudos: 339





	northern light

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from [this beautiful song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f18l0bZoeBI&vl=ko), which i recommend listening to while reading this fic!

“Obi-Wan!”

A few bangs and crashes, and then—

“ _Ahsoka!_ ”

More bangs and crashes, and then a low groan from somewhere to Ahsoka’s right. Or maybe Ahsoka’s left. Her head was spinning too much for her to actually pin down the source of the sound. Then the groan came again: definitley to Ahsoka’s right.

“Obi-Wan! Ahsoka!”

Some more groaning from Ahsoka’s right, and then a low, “’kin…”

“Hang on!”

Ahsoka felt a sudden blast of cold air, and then the stir of the air as someone rushed through—

She heard a relieved gasp-cry, and then she opened her eyes to find Anakin hovering over her. She couldn’t make out his expression: he was too blurry around the edges, and there was too much white light around them.

Another sharp wind tore through the room— _were they in a room?_ Ahsoka wondered—and Ahsoka shivered. She felt something settle over her shoulders a second later, and then she heard the high-pitched whine of metal against metal, and then—

A sharp cry, followed by Anakin’s, “Sorry, sorry, sorry—”

When Ahsoka opened her eyes, she found Anakin’s still slightly-blurry form with a slightly-blurry Obi-Wan leaning against him. He had a cloak wrapped around him, a cloak that Ahsoka was pretty sure he didn’t have before.

_Before…_

“Master?” Ahsoka mumbled. Or tried to. She was finding difficulty in forming the words. She tried to lift her head from whatever she was lying on. The ground, she had to be lying on the ground, but that couldn’t be right, because Ahsoka saw the keypad to a door right next to her.

And then slowly, memories came flickering back to her: she had been walking through the hallway. And then some kind of attack. Hearing Anakin’s voice over the comm system. Obi-Wan had been somewhere behind her, and then—

Ahsoka turned her eyes to the side of the ship, where she now saw a gaping, blown out hole still sparking with wires. Beyond that, Ahsoka saw whites and blues, and for a moment, Ahsoka wondered if she had gotten hit in the head so bad that she couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t make sense, because she had been seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan just fine—

Another wind came flying into the ship, and then Ahsoka saw the little white flecks that could only be snow flurries.

Oh. They had landed on an ice planet.

Not landed, crashed.

Ahsoka could now see the remains of the other half of the ship just a few meters away from herself. The other half of the ship that Anakin must have cut himself out of, because Ahsoka could see the still glowing marks of where Anakin’s lightsaber had made contact.

Another groan brought Ahsoka’s eyes back to where Anakin was now seating Obi-Wan against the ground. “I’m sorry,” Anakin was saying quietly, and then Ahsoka saw that Obi-Wan’s leg looked funny—

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan suddenly gasped. “Anakin, don’t—”

“Your _leg_ —”

“We have bigger worries,” Obi-Wan said, his voice tight with a pain that Ahsoka knew he was only just containing. “Don’t waste your strength.”

Ahsoka knew that her master wanted to argue, but then he was turning towards Ahsoka, and this time, Ahsoka could actually make out his expression: guilt, frustration from the hard set in his jaw and the stiffness in his shoulders.

And then Anakin was right in front of her, hands ghosting up Ahsoka’s head. She felt a brief pressure, saw the stain on her master’s fingertips, saw the way his eyes flicked over the rest of her, trying to find any more injuries.

“’m okay,” Ahsoka mumbled, trying to push herself up into a sitting position. She only got up halfway before the whole ship spun around her. She swallowed back the nausea climbing up her throat, tried to settle back down, but Anakin was there, his arms hooking under Ahsoka’s arms.

Ahsoka let Anakin half-carry, half-guide her to the wall. Another cold wind swept into the ship, causing Ahsoka’s head to throb even more than it already had.

“I’m still working on communications,” Anakin said, settling Ahsoka down. “The signal’s weak though—I think there was a storm just a little while ago, so it might take some time before anyone can actually pick up our distress call, but Rex and Cody know we were in this area, so they’ll find us eventually.” He was speaking a little too fast, or maybe Ahsoka’s head was too slow to decipher his words in real time.

Either way, Ahsoka still had to take a few seconds to think of a response. “That’s good,” she managed. Her words were too heavy in her mouth.

A flurry of snow fluttered into the ship.

They all shivered.

“I’ll cover that up,” Anakin said after a small silence. “The hole. It’ll probably get colder…”

Ahsoka distantly became aware that her master didn’t have a cloak. “Where—”

“In the other half of the ship,” Anakin said. He nodded back to the scattered ruins of the ship outside. “I’ll be right back.”

Before either Ahsoka or Obi-Wan could say anything, Anakin was already jumping through the gaping hole, and in just a few seconds, he was little more than a dark blur in the snow and ice.

Ahsoka felt Obi-Wan stir beside her, and then a murmur: “How’s your head?”

“Okay,” Ahsoka said. But then there was another pulse of pain, and Ahsoka found herself fighting back the nausea once again. “Not okay. Not okay.” She hated the little whine in her voice, hated that she was getting tears in her eyes because the pain was _that bad_ , but she had survived worse, hadn’t she? She was pretty sure she had…

A light touch on her arm, and then, “Stay still. Your head will only hurt more if you don’t.”

Ahsoka managed the faintest nod of her head. She swallowed, tilted her head back against the wall. For a moment, the only thing she could hear was the sound of her own shaky breaths, Obi-Wan’s slow but even ones. The whine of the wind outside, and then the frantic footfall of Anakin racing back for them.

Ahsoka was relieved when a cloak was tossed over the hole in the ship. Though it did little for the actual cold temperature in the ship, Ahsoka was glad she didn’t have to look at the bright snow anymore. That hurt to look at.

“I rigged the communication system to send out distress calls every five minutes,” Anakin said, sitting down on Ahsoka’s other side. For the first time, Ahsoka noticed the strange position of her master’s shoulder. He was moving it gingerly, careful not to move it at all.

But other than that carefulness, Anakin didn’t pay his injury much mind. Ahsoka felt him inhale, exhale. She could see his breath. Actually, she could see _all_ of their breaths.

Ahsoka’s fingers were starting to numb too, and she tried to bury herself a little deeper into the cloak, but even then, that didn’t seem to keep the ice from spreading to her wrists, her arms. She puffed out another breath, felt pain lance up her head again as she did so.

She closed her eyes. That felt a little better, just shutting out whatever light was still creeping out from the spare cloak flapping in the wind.

She tried to focus on the sounds of Obi-Wan and Anakin breathing beside her. She could feel their cold hands brush against hers whenever they shifted a little.

She should stay awake. She needed to stay awake—she knew that it was dangerous to fall asleep in the cold, knew the horror stories of people who fell asleep in the outcropping of an icy cliff and never woke up. She needed to stay awake…

But her head hurt so much, and now Ahsoka was wondering if she had been concussed—she was probably concussed, she had seen the symptoms before, but she just had never been concussed before, and was this what a concussion felt like because…

\--

“Obi-Wan, she’s—”

“I know, I know—”

Ahsoka heard a muffled swear, but she wasn’t sure who or where it was directed. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt glued shut. She was cold, she realized. And her chest felt strange, a little too tight. She wanted to say so, but all she got out was a small sound that grated against her own hearing.

Her lips were numb. Everything was numb, but then Ahsoka felt something strong—two somethings strong—settle over her, felt the scratchy texture of cloaks against her shoulders and her cheek. A breath against the side of her face, her neck. Hair. Human hair—

Ahsoka pried open her eyes. She found herself looking around the dim wreckage of the ship, remembered that they were still here, still stuck in this icy planet, and she still felt cold, and her chest still felt too tight, but then she became more aware of the slow warmth at her sides, her core. Ahsoka peered down to find familiar hands resting lightly over her, arms draped protectively at her sides. Blocking out the cold, Ahsoka realized dully.

“Master?” Ahsoka asked. Tried to ask. Her words came out all slurred, as though time itself had slowed.

“Right here,” Anakin replied. Ahsoka felt something shift at her side, realized that it had to be Anakin. She could feel the brush of his clothes against her cheek as he craned his head, and when Ahsoka turned, she saw Obi-Wan on her other side, his head lowered, the expression on his face tired but focused.

“’s wrong?” Ahsoka wanted to sit up, realized that she couldn’t. She figured she should be a little worried about that, but she couldn’t be bothered to.

“Don’t worry about it,” Anakin replied. Ahsoka felt a hand—not Anakin’s, Obi-Wan’s—pick up her wrist, felt fingers settle right over where she knew her pulse was. She saw the slightest crease in between Obi-Wan’s brows, but when he looked up at Ahsoka, that crease disappeared.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan said neutrally, “we should probably lie down now.”

_Lie down?_

“Right,” Anakin said. He paused, looked at Obi-Wan. “But what about—”

“Don’t worry about me—we’ll just have to move slowly,” came Obi-Wan’s response.

Ahsoka heard Anakin mumble something that she couldn’t catch, which was a little strange, because Ahsoka could almost always hear Anakin. She wanted to be worried about that too, but she didn’t have time to, because then there was a hand at her back, pushing her away from the wall.

“Just nice and slow,” Anakin was saying, whether more to himself or to Obi-Wan or to her, Ahsoka couldn’t tell. She felt another hand on her opposite shoulder, a hand at her stomach to keep her upright just briefly, and then she was being lowered to the ground slowly, slowly, and all she could see was the ceiling of the ship. That, and the grey light that still occasionally danced into the ship from where the snow and ice waited outside.

Some more shifting around Ahsoka brought her attention away from the ceiling. She heard a quiet grunt, and then she felt Anakin and Obi-Wan at both her sides again.

“We need to keep her awake,” came Obi-Wan’s voice. “Ahsoka, don’t fall asleep.” 

“’m tired,” Ahsoka mumbled. She tried to turn to look at Obi-Wan, but she only got so far as to nudge her head a little against the ground.

“Anakin—”

“Ahsoka,” Anakin said quickly. “Do you remember the drill set I gave you yesterday? Did you ever get around to doing it?”

Ahsoka tried to remember. Some forms. She had gone over some forms, but she forgot how many times she did of each form. She might have just focused on one form the entire time. She was pretty sure she did. “Mm…”

“That’s okay, I don’t remember what I told you to do either,” Anakin replied. A pause, and then, “You have to stay awake, Snips.”

“’m trying,” Ahsoka replied, but her eyes were already drifting closed.

“ _Ahsoka_ —” a nudge at her shoulder.

Ahsoka opened her eyes. “What?”

“Don’t fall asleep.” There was some desperation in Anakin’s voice now. “Okay?”

Ahsoka was _trying_ not to, but that was a little difficult when exhaustion seemed to tug her down from deep within her head, her chest, her bones. But she found Anakin’s bright eyes looking down at her, all worry and frustration.

“Okay,” Ahsoka managed.

There was another small silence, and then Obi-Wan said, “The situation could be worse. It won’t be long before Rex and the others find us.” He shifted against Ahsoka, his cheek just barely brushing against Ahsoka’s shoulder. “Think of it this way—there could be droids.”

“Don’t say that,” Anakin said. “With our luck, there might just be—” He stopped himself, cleared his throat. “Anyways.” A nudge at Ahsoka’s other side from Anakin. “The droids won’t be enough for Ahsoka, anyways.”

He was still trying to keep her awake, Ahsoka knew. She couldn’t think of any other reason why he might suddenly be changing the tune now.

“Do you remember that time on Christophsis?” Anakin asked. “The time you almost killed me with the rock wall?”

 _Ah_.

“I saved your life,” Ahsoka muttered.

A short huff of a laugh from Obi-Wan.

Ahsoka could tell Anakin was smiling when he said, “Yeah, that part too. Did you hear about this, Obi-Wan?”

“I might have,” Obi-Wan replied neutrally. “But it seems I’ll need to hear the story from you two specifically.”

“Right,” Anakin said. “Well, we were about to bomb the shield generator then—and Ahsoka here decided to run _straight ahead_ —”

“Very much like someone else I know,” Obi-Wan commented dryly.

“Do you wanna hear the story or not?”

“No, do tell.”

“Anyways, Ahsoka decided to run _straight ahead_ and activate _all_ the droids under the ground—”

“Said I was sorry,” Ahsoka muttered.

“I know, I know—and I was _surrounded_ , and then Ahsoka—”

“Saw a rock wall,” Ahsoka interrupted. She couldn’t tell if maybe it was because her insistence that her master at least get the story right or if it was because Anakin and Obi-Wan’s body heat were finally getting to her, but she suddenly could feel the words forming in her lips. “There was a hole. I pulled it down.”

“Crushed all the droids in one go and left me intact,” Anakin finished.

“Impressive,” Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka tried to smile. She felt her lip twitch a little bit, figured that was the best she could do.

“And there was another time,” Anakin said. “On Teth, right when we got to the monastery. Ahsoka—”

“Right behind you.”

“Right,” Anakin said. “You caught up eventually.”

Ahsoka hummed. She dipped her chin a little, trying to better adjust herself.

“So two daring rescues from your own Padawan,” Obi-Wan said, amused.

“Three,” Ahsoka said.

“Wait a second—” Anakin started. “I wouldn’t count—”

“Got Stinky back to his dad,” Ahsoka said. “And Jabba was _mad_.”

A snort from Anakin. “I could have handled Jabba.”

“Mm.”

“So _three_ rescues,” Obi-Wan said.

“Don’t you start, Master—I’m pretty sure _your_ Padawan saved your life at _least_ —”

“Not now, Anakin—”

“No,” Ahsoka said, wriggling a little under Obi-Wan and Anakin’s arms. “What’d you do?”

A sigh from Obi-Wan, and a quiet laugh from Anakin.

“Did I ever tell you about…?”

\--

“Ahsoka—stay awake. Look.”

Ahsoka pried her eyes open. She wanted to tell Anakin that she really was too exhausted to stay awake for any longer, but she tried anyways. “’m…” Nope. Her lips weren’t working.

“ _Look_.”

“Anakin, careful—”

“Do you see—”

Ahsoka managed to turn her head at just the right angle, just enough to catch what Anakin was pointing to. At first, she couldn’t see much: it was dark, she realized. No longer could she see the white landscape outside the ship. But beyond the darkness, she saw a glimmer of green. Or what she thought was green. She was pretty sure it was green.

She blinked.

Definitely green. Green and blue and purple and white rays of light drifting sleepily across the dark sky outside.

Ahsoka blinked again. “Do you…”

“Yeah, we all see it,” Anakin said quietly. He looked down at Ahsoka, and in the dim light, Ahsoka saw him grin. “So you have to stay awake.”

Ahsoka only hummed. She nudged herself forward, just enough to catch more of the light.

“Obi-Wan, do you—”

“I see it, Anakin.” Obi-Wan’s voice was quiet, his breath tickling against the back of Ahsoka’s neck.

A silence passed.

“They’re pretty,” Ahsoka said at last.

“Yeah.” Anakin’s voice was oddly hushed. “Not bad.” A pause. “Have you ever seen these before, Master?”

“A few times,” Obi-Wan murmured. “But not this close.”

“Well, then, I guess this makes this an extra special occasion, doesn’t it?”

Ahsoka and Obi-Wan both let out a sound that were suspiciously alike. But Anakin just smirked at them, and then, adjusting the cloak around themselves, he added, “So _both_ of you have to stay awake. Got it?”

_Both?_

Ahsoka turned her head to look at Obi-Wan. Sure enough, his eyes were drifting closed.

“Obi-Wan—” Anakin reached over Ahsoka, shook him lightly by the arm. “Come on. Not you too.”

Obi-Wan opened his eyes. Looked confused for a second, and then he shook his head. “Awake,” he said.

“Good. Both of you—just—don’t fall asleep.”

“Mm.”

Another shake against Ahsoka’s arm, and then a shake at Obi-Wan’s arm. “I mean it.”

So Ahsoka forced her eyes open. She looked to the lights.

\--

“ _General?_ ”

“ _Rex!_ ” Ahsoka winced at the shout Anakin gave. Really, did he have to be so _loud_ —

“ _Rex!_ We’re in here!”

Ahsoka heard the thundering of boots, and then a sudden blast of cold. She pried her eyes open in time to see familiar helmets, familiar people. She blinked slowly. She felt slow and stiff, but she made out Rex standing in front of them.

“They need medical attention,” Anakin was saying. “Both of them.”

“On it, General.” Rex turned to the side, started bellowing orders that Ahsoka couldn’t quite make out.

But then she was being lifted up, and she wanted to protest against the hands that carried her up onto a cot, but she was too tired. She felt something heavy settle over her—not a cloak, but something much thicker. A blanket, she figured. That was the right word for it.

And then she was out in the darkness, and Ahsoka caught Anakin’s face floating above her. His voice was a babble above the sound of boots crunching on ice and snow, and then Ahsoka looked past his shoulder and up to the lights. Greens, blues. The purple and white had faded.

The green and blue lights danced around together, tangled in a stream of light that made Ahsoka feel strangely pleased.

And then the lights were blocked out by the interior of a ship. Grey walls, fluorescents, and Ahsoka wanted to see the lights again. She turned her head to see Obi-Wan on a cot that was similar to hers. His eyes were just barely open, his breathing shallow, but he was awake.

And Anakin was standing between them, his lips tinged purple and his cheeks pale, but he was the most alert out of the three of them. “We’ll be off soon,” he was saying. “And then you two can actually—” The rest of his words were drowned out by the hiss of the doors shutting, and then there was a low rumble as the ship started up, up, up—

Ahsoka turned her head to the side. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but then she found the viewport. The sky was still dark out, but the lights—the lights were still there—

“Just hang in there—” Anakin was still talking, his voice nearly breathless from whatever words he was trying to get out.

But the lights were still there—

Ahsoka swallowed. Forced her lips to form just one word—

“ _Look_.”

She wasn’t sure how she did it, but she managed just enough strength to point out the viewport.

Anakin, to her relief, fell silent. She heard some footsteps, and then the slight whirr of a cot being tugged forward. Ahsoka saw Obi-Wan and Anakin out of the corner of her eye: Obi-Wan still stretched out on the cot, but Anakin standing.

And even though Ahsoka couldn’t see Anakin and Obi-Wan completely, she knew they were looking out the viewport. Looking at those blue and green lights tangled together in an endless stream.

They were quiet.

And as the ship finally pulled away from the planet, they all let out a sigh: three quiet breaths, mingling with a strange mix of satisfaction and disappointment.

They were quiet.

Eventually, Rex returned with the medics, and Ahsoka was allowed to close her eyes.

But even in her dreams, she saw those blue and green lights dancing around her.

 _Tangled together in an endless stream_ …

Ahsoka rather liked that.

**Author's Note:**

> so i started writing this fic literally a month ago, but life got busy, and i was trying to stay on top of other fics/work and stuff, but last night i finally finished this! 
> 
> as always, comments/kudos are greatly appreciated!!


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